A return to the world of the light commercial truck for Hyundai, the Mighty EX6 is the Korean marque’s entry into a Japanese dominated sector of the market. Can it deliver?

The Mighty EX6 can be registered as either a Class 1 or a Class 2 depending on your company requirements and indeed what you ask your Mighty truck to do.
A Class 1 truck must be a little different than any other because – by its very definition – it must be operated by people without a lot of, if any, truck driving experience.
To this end, you will find a lot of common ground between a passenger car and a Class 1 truck – a good Class 1 truck anyway.
Things like the features found in the cabin for instance: a multifunction steering wheel with cruise control and Bluetooth phone connectivity, which puts some car manufacturer systems to shame for connection speed and clarity.
The air conditioning is likewise very impressive, and the audio suite allows for USB, auxiliary input and of course Bluetooth streaming.
What is ‘truckish’ is the suspended driver’s seat with its variable spring adjustment. Swinging up into this seat and viewing the highway from it out of the massive windscreen does lend a certain King of the Road appeal to the daily drive.  
The on-board safety systems are more closely related to the world of the car however. Hyundai’s Mighty EX6 is equipped with dual airbags, ABS and four-disc brakes, cruise control, an electronic stability programme and hill start assist.
For a truck and its call to haul heavy cargoes, the hill start assist is an invaluable tool and takes some of the stress off one of the Mighty’s most defining features – the transmission.
Commonly, light duty commercials take on automated manual transmissions, a sort of faux manual, offering self-shifting convenience while replicating the engagement experience of a manual transmission.
AMTs are not commonly found in passenger vehicles, so Hyundai’s engineers determined the EX6 should not have one either. Instead, the Mighty runs a six-speed automatic from transmission specialists, Allison.
Hyundai can build its own transmissions, but to give the Mighty truck a significant point of difference, the Korean brand opted to partner with an acknowledged expert in the field.
And the Allison transmission is super slick, incredibly precise, and efficient.
The transmission is only, well actually, it’s more than half the story, especially since you can get a manual EX6 if you want it, but around Auckland? Trust me, the auto is the way to go.
What about the engine? This is a Hyundai build and it’s a cracker.
Under the cab of the EX6 is a mighty 3.9-litre, 4-cylinder in-line, 4-stroke cycle, water-cooled, direct injection, turbo charged with intercooler diesel engine. Now you can breathe!
This mouthful of a motor churns out 125kW of power and 608Nm of torque. You get the sense that whatever you choose to haul in the Hyundai, the engine is more than up to it.
Trucks are not required to list their fuel consumption figures or emission levels, but it is in the manufacturer’s best interest to point out how compliant their engines are.
In the case of the Mighty EX6, the implacable engine is Euro V-compliant, which means it is considerate when it comes to global warming and keeping the polar bears happy.
From the driver’s perspective, this is one awesome powerplant. It’s smooth, refined, and it is immensely powerful.
Hyundai built the Mighty EX6 with an H-frame chassis – two longitudinal beams joined by a series of lateral ones – forming a solid spine for a variety of body configurations.   
Our model has a 4.3m long by 2.2m wide by 2.2 m high solid Pantech box with a super cool, hydraulically controlled alloy tail lift, and this is how it arrived off the boat.
Yep, Hyundai can offer a ready-to-roll configuration from the factory, eliminating the need for extra delays while your truck goes for a local fit of refrigerated bodies, drop side trays, tipper units, flat decks and so forth.
With the variety of personal choice in configurations available, pricing is a discussion best had with your Hyundai truck representative.
We can see big things coming from Hyundai’s light and medium duty trucks as their development mirrors that of the immensely successful passenger car fleet.
The Mighty EX6 is a very practical demonstration of the brand’s ability to deliver the goods, figuratively and literally.